REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA ANNUAL REPORT On the activity of the Ombudsman’s Institution January 1st – December 31st Year 2018 Tirana, on May 2019 CONTENT The welcome speech of the Ombudsman CHAPTER 1 The legal and institutional framework CHAPTER 2 Cooperation 2.1 Cooperation with public administration institutions and the level of implementation of the Ombudsman’s recommendations 2.2 International cooperation 2.3 Cooperation within the framework of projects CHAPTER 3 The follow-up and implementation of Parliament’s resolution for the evaluation of the activity of the Ombudsman’s Institution for the year 2017. CHAPTER 4 Assessment of the situation for the observance of human rights by the public administration 4.1 The rights of people deprived of their liberty 4.2 The observance of human rights by the State Police bodies 4.3 The prevention of violence and torture 4.4 The observance of Human Rights by the Prosecution 4.5 The execution of civil and administrative judicial decisions 4.6 Free legal aid 4.7 The observance of property rights 4.8 The right to health care 4.9 The right to education 4.10 Environment and human rights 4.11 The right to housing 4.12 Economic aid 4.13 The right to social security 4.14 The rights of people with disabilities 4.15 Children's rights CHAPTER 5 Other institutional engagements 5.1 Special report on the issues related to the implementation of the construction project of the road segment "Tirana’s Eastern Ring Road", in the area of Shkoza. 5.2 The right to peaceful rallies 5.3 The Protest against the National Road Tax 5.4. The independent monitoring of the rights of foreign emigrants and the forced returns of the Albanian citizens 2 5.5 Drafting of the Strategic Plan 2019-2022 CHAPTER 6 Support Services 6.1 The Management of Human and Administrative Resources 6.2 The overview of income and expenses 6.3 The functioning of regional offices CHAPTER 7 Figures and facts about complaints and their handling 7.1 The number of complaints, requests and notices reviewed 7.2 Cases carried over in years 3 The welcome speech of the Ombudsman Since the ancient times, knowing the truth has been one of the main goals of people. It is this essential, seemingly implicit and prosperous desire, which lies in the foundation of our development. The tendency towards the truth and curiosity for it, serve as the safest means for the progress of mankind, even though it is no longer the most comfortable means. In one way or another, our entire society, its mode of organization, as well as the institutions that make it functional, have been built on the premise of truth and the rejection of deceit, illusion, and falsehood. Truth lies in the foundation of democracy, as an element quantified by the will of the majority and the public interest. On the other hand, if there is any distinctive feature of something that we should not accept as democracy, it is nothing less than avoiding important truths for citizens, building illusions, and suppressing freedom that derives from the truth. In our modern society, even though democracy is universally accepted as our form of state, the boundary between the truth and the misguided propaganda has unfortunately been faded significantly these times. We must admit that propaganda is not simply a consequence of anti-democracy. Often it is also its predecessor. As the freedom we enjoy is true and present, there remains an eminent risk of its misuse by alienating the system that produced it. Propaganda is the other name of falsehood. The truth speaks through its existence and as such it does not need propaganda. Disguised as an aesthetic expertise to the surface, propaganda in the conditions of freedom, is in fact restrictive to freedom. The freedom to learn the truth first, and then the freedom itself in its intent. Propaganda in our time exists as an attempt to create pleasing realities for the private interest, like music for the ear, and painting for the eye. In its essence, propaganda is an industrial fabrication of the profitable truths. But there are no profitable truths. Profit is an economic concept, while the truth is a moral one. Profit is a loving round of figures, is the eloquent compromise of words and a dazzling blur of sight. While the truth is the most prosaic, cold, mathematic, and ruthless appearance of WHAT EXISTS. After all, the truth may be boring. It refuses to look like propaganda, as a special effects clip that presents from favorable angles a view that would otherwise be disgusting. It is not a bombastic poster or a television show. It is not even an individual misery speculation for a bit more attention. The truth may also be a grim statement of fact within a long relationship without any figuration. But that’s the truth. 4 Over the course of a year, the Ombudsman’s Institution, as the highest in the ranking of our national institutions in the protection of human rights, has heard, collected and reviewed the truths of the Albanian citizens. Those truths that have been brought to our attention precisely by them, but also that they have rashly presented to us from the reality of the country. This report does not claim anything more beautiful or more interesting than that. Thank you! 5 CHAPTER 1 The legal and institutional framework Nowadays consideration of the protection and promotion of human rights is visible and sensitive in every sphere of government’s activity and in many other spheres of the public and private life. This reality is reflected by the number and scale of the dissemination of institutions that focus their work on human rights. However, it is understandable that only a legally and effectively independent institution, detached from the responsibilities of executive government and the judicial administration, can play a unique role as well as maintain a leading position in the field of human rights. Such an institution provides an irreplaceable contribution to a country's efforts to protect its citizens and to develop a culture that respects and develops the human rights. Institutions established for the protection of human rights are important state-building actors in democratic systems. The Ombudsman as one of them plays an irreplaceable role, indicating the degree of maturity of the political class and the mentality of the society that creates it. In this sense, the establishment, functioning and support of the Ombudsman’s Institution, the People's Advocate in Albania, as a new institutional and conceptual experience, despite the lack of institutional tradition in this approach, represents an inherent effort to build the rule of law. This lack of tradition is so tangible that even in the published memoirs of the drafting group of the Constitution text of 1998, when it was discussed about the prediction of the Ombudsman’s Institution, the questions raised were numerous, but they still did not lack the models that could be followed. The establishment of this institution in our country was achieved through the provision in the Constitution of the Republic of Albania, approved by a referendum in 1998. Following the classic model of the Parliamentary Ombudsman, the Albanian Parliament adopted the organic law "On the Ombudsman" in 1999, by affirming the Ombudsman’s institution, as a constitutional guarantee for the protection of the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of the individual, the Albanian citizens, foreigners, regular or non-regular residents in Albania, refugees as well as stateless people who are located in the territory of the Republic of Albania, by the unlawful and irregular acts or inactions of the public administration bodies. For these reasons, it is part of those institutions, otherwise known as national institutions for the protection and promotion of human rights, of non-decision-making nature, but of opinion- making nature, as a guarantee of democracy and human rights. In accordance with the Paris Principles1, the Ombudsman was provided with a broad mandate, based on the international human rights standards, for the promotion, prevention of violations and the protection of human rights. This mandate is implemented in the jurisdiction and competencies that this institution provides for in its organic law and by the fact that, apart from the duties assigned to the provisions of this law, the Ombudsman may perform other duties assigned to specific laws, or the role of the trusted and implementing institution of the pre-trial procedures, the start of the selection process of the candidacies, the creation of important institutions of the system of the rule of law, as defined in the Constitution of the Republic of Albania2, Law no. 84/2016 "On the transitory evaluation of judges and 1 The UN's commitment to the establishment of national human rights protection institutions, which began in 1946, recognized a very important development of the workshop organized by the UN General Parliament in October 1991 , in Paris. In this activity, several principles were laid down for enhancing the effectiveness of the work of national human rights protection institutions, otherwise known as the Paris Principles. They form the model (accepted by the member states) for the establishment and functioning of these institutions. 2 See point 3, article 149 / d, item 11, article 179, and point 6 of Article C of the Annex - Transitional Judicial and Prosecutorial Reassessment of the Constitution of the Republic of Albania. 6 prosecutors in the Republic of Albania", as well as in the Law No.115 / 2016 "On the bodies of the justice system governance". Paris Principles are the basic document adopted by the General Parliament of the United Nations, which sets the standards for the functioning of the National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.